- utf8_decode: documentation ( source)
- mb_strlen: documentation ( source)
- var_export: documentation ( source)
<?php
// the Arabic (Hello) string below is: 59 bytes and 32 characters
$utf8 = "السلام علیکم ورحمة الله وبرکاته!";
var_export( strlen($utf8) ); // 59
echo PHP_EOL;
var_export( mb_strlen($utf8, 'utf8') ); // 32
echo PHP_EOL;
var_export( strlen(utf8_decode($utf8))); // 32